by Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports

by Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports

Before it was placed in a gleaming trophy case at the main entrance of a sparkling downtown arena, the Washington Bullets 1977-78 NBA championship trophy was sitting in the bottom of a closet at the former home of a deceased team employee.

I get it. I wouldn't have wanted to watch the Bullets/Wizards for those 22 years either.

When current owner Ted Leonsis took control of the Wizards in 2010, he inquired as to the whereabouts of the trophy. No one knew, Sheinin writes.

Someone recalled someone else saying sometime awhile back that Smokey Bowie, the late building manager/head engineer/jack-of-all-trades who had been with the franchise since the old Capital Centre days until passing away a few years ago, had at some point taken [the trophy] home with him for safekeeping. And sure enough, a carload of team employees dispatched to Bowie's old house found the trophy - scuffed up, tarnished and dented - at the bottom of a closet.

"They bring it in," Leonsis recalled this week, "and it's got dings in it, it's matted, not shiny. My wife [Lynn] is best friends with the woman who runs Tiffany's in Tysons Corner, so I asked her to look at it, and I said, 'Look at this â?? this is what we spend a billion dollars over our lifetime to try to win, and it's been sitting in someone's closet. Can you fix it?' It took about three months, but it came back perfect."

That may be the first time something improved after joining the Leonsis Wizards.

The 1977-78 team will be honored this weekend at a private event and at Saturday night's game against the Indiana Pacers.